


C is for Castle

by MariaPriest



Series: Stargate Drabbles' Alphabet Challenge [3]
Category: Stargate SG-1
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-05-21
Updated: 2018-05-21
Packaged: 2019-05-09 22:24:55
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,174
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14724722
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MariaPriest/pseuds/MariaPriest
Summary: Jack and Daniel face an attack from a Goa'uld.





	C is for Castle

The staff blast originated from the battlement closest to half of SG-1. The energy skidded across the top of the huge boulder behind which Jack O’Neill and Daniel Jackson were crouched. Sharp shards of hard rock peppered their heads. Jack was protected by his cap, but Daniel suffered a few painful nicks to his scalp.

“Remind me again why we’re doing this, Daniel,” Jack shouted as he rose up high and long enough to sight his MP-5 and fire off a few rounds. He didn’t wait to see the Jaffa fall backwards due to two bullets in his head.

“Demna* is a minor Goa’uld in service to Cronus to supply him with trained Jaffa. We’re trying to have a negative effect on his army. Remember this was Teal’c’s idea to come here.” Daniel hoped this would deflect some of Jack’s . . . intensity away from him.

Jack rolled his eyes; even in the heat of battle, Daniel didn’t get rhetorical. “Yeah, yeah.” The boulder shook from a direct staff blast. The rock cracked and grew hot, forcing both men to back away a few inches to avoid getting burned. “Fewer Jaffa for Cronus, easier to take the snakehead down. I get it.”

Daniel stretched to the side and fired his handgun in the general direction of the fortress.

“Think you hit anything, Daniel? Like maybe _any_ part of that huge honkin’ wall?” Jack’s voice dripped with sarcasm as they curled up even tighter when a second staff blast hit their protection. Now light shone through new gaps and the rock radiated more heat. This was something that Carter hadn’t warned him about when she was explaining her conjectures about the local rocks. She was right about multiple direct staff blasts being required to pulverize these boulders and one other thing: their radio signals hadn’t made it through so they’d had to rely on timing. “Crap! What’s taking Carter and Teal’c so long?” Skulking around the gigantic, unfamiliar structure planting all the C-4 they had and then getting out without getting caught was more of a time-eater than any of them had calculated. Unless, of course, they’d been apprehended. He didn’t want to go there.

“Get ready to move out, Daniel. The next blast is gonna take out our cover and us along with it.” Fortunately, there was plenty of cover to run to. Numerous boulders littered the area around the fortress like so many overgrown lawn ornaments. Obviously, the Goa’uld didn’t think they’d be a problem.

Jack popped up and sprayed the battlements with lots of bullets to buy some time. He was down again before he could see if he had hit any Jaffa. Taking a few deep breaths, he came to a squat that would allow him to dart off to the left. Daniel imitated him and prepared to take off to the right, as they had planned earlier.

“Okay, Daniel, stay low, move forward, zigzagging a little. On three. I’ll draw their fire.”

“Uh, do you mean when you _say_ ‘three’ or just _after_ you say ‘three’?” The archeologist’s voice quivered ever so slightly from fear and adrenaline.

“When I _say_ ‘three,’ okay?” _Geez, this is something I’ll have to be sure we get straightened out again when we get back_ , O’Neill thought. “You ready?”

Daniel couldn’t find his voice so he just nodded and pushed his glasses further up his nose using the business end of the gun.

Jack breathed a sigh of relief when Danny didn’t blow the top of his head off with that birdbrain move; there were too many Jaffa more than willing to do that for him. Anyway, yet another point to work on with him once they were back on Earth. “One . . . two . . . three!”

Both rabbited for their next cover, with Jack firing his MP-5 on full automatic. They were just in time. Another staff blast turned the fractured rock into shrapnel and filled the air with thick dust. They were far enough away that the displaced air didn’t send them flying, but it did snatch Jack’s cap from his head.

Daniel had his head covered with his arms, thereby saving himself from fatal wounds. Though his arms and upper back smarted a lot from multiple perforations, he made it to the next boulder without stumbling. He was pretty sure none of the shrapnel penetrated deeply enough to puncture his lungs, thanks to the vest, so considered himself lucky.

As for Jack – not so much. One particularly large shard pierced his right thigh, a smaller one managed to sneak into his side between his belt and vest, while a third grazed his now cap-less head. He went down with a grunt, but most of him ended up behind his destination rock.

“Jack!” Daniel called out from behind his cover. He knew something was wrong because he’d heard his friend hit the ground hard. Impatiently, he waited for the air to clear.

The next thing he knew, the ground shook beneath him. Explosion after explosion rocked the fortress, sending the Jaffa on the battlements to the earth on one side or the moat on the other and Daniel to his butt.

Moments later, hordes of screaming native people from eight or nine large villages, wielding all sorts of medieval weaponry, left the safety of the surrounding forest and charged the crumbling fortress. Even the keep, where the Goa’uld Demna consistently was at this time of morning, was crashing down. Assuming they were leaderless, the Jaffa scattered. Many dropped their staff weapons as they sought to escape the invaders.

Daniel struggled to his feet. It hurt a lot more than he thought it would, even accounting for impressively-sized bits of rock sticking out of him. He stood still for a moment to let the dizziness pass and take a few deep breaths. Instantly coughing from all the rock dust he sucked in - _God that hurts!_ \- he staggered toward his teammate. “Jack!” he kept yelling every two or three steps. His worry increased with each time there was no response to the name.

After what seemed like a journey of several miles through deep snow, he was finally within a few yards of the still figure of his friend. He could see the blood everywhere - at least it seemed everywhere to him. “No! Jack?”

An arm moved. The hand attached to it went immediately for his head. “Oh, for cryin’ out loud, Daniel, I’ve got a headache,” he scolded. “Turn down the volume a few hundred notches.”

“Careful, Jack, you’re hurt.” Daniel swiped the dust from his face. Left behind was blood smeared there from his hands. Carefully, he knelt at Jack’s right side.

“Ya think?” Jack whispered. He couldn’t muster his usual sarcasm as the pain from his injuries flared horribly. He really hated it when the effects of the adrenaline subsided. “Last time I’m the diversion. Next time _I_ get to storm the castle.”

the end  
copyright 2010

*Demna (aka Finn MacCool, Fingal, etc) was a giant god/warrior of Ireland who banished an invading giant from Scotland. 


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